Raising Pup

Dad and I help April raise her pups now. Paula says Dad is the best male dog here, when it comes to raising pups. It makes sense, since he has the most experience. He helped raising my unruly brothers. I was, of course, not unruly myself, but I observed and learned from my parents. Paula also says I am best of the females to help April with her pups. I have had pups, so I know what it is all about, and April and I are good friends. Dad and I are making a good job, and the pups are eager to learn from us. It is an interesting job, it is fun getting to know the pups, and it makes me feel a little more useful than I ordinarily are.

On a side note, I have received comments to my blog over the last three days that I have rejected. The comments seem to be written in Chinese, but I have not made any sense of the text when I have tried to translate it on online translation pages. While online translations does not make good translations, they generally give you some sort of impression of what the translated text says. This is not the case here. Since I have no idea what is written, I reject the comments. I am curious though, and hope to get the message in a language that I can understand.

Paying Bills

Daniel occupied the computer all evening to pay bills. I believe he should have done this earlier, but he claimed he had other things to do, such as work (even though it was Sunday) and setting up Christmas lights. Well, the result was that I did not get access to the computer until after midnight. This blog post is therefore actually the blog post of Sunday, but dated on Monday. Paula occupied the computer in the same way a couple of days ago. It really makes me annoyed, but what can I do after the fact? Well, I hope I can write a better blog entry Monday evening.

Rain, Rain, Rain

This November has had quite boring wheather. There has been almost constant rainfall, sometimes a lot, but often just a small downpour, and when the rain has not fallen, it has still been overcast. The air and the ground has been moist all the time. Parts of the yard has turned muddy, the grass giving up. It is sad. I hope the December wheather will be more like winter. Snow would be welcome, for the fun of playing in it and because the landscape seems less dark when it is white. We will have to see.

Heh Heh Heh

Some news are just hilarious, you would not quite believe they would be true, were it not for the general truthfulness of the news agency reporting it. The BBC reports from the Pacific Ocean island country of Vanuatu, that the Prime Minister has lost his seat in parliament due to a paperwork error. Under Vanuatu law, if a Member of Parliament is absent from three consecutive sittnings without notification about the reasons for the absence to the Speaker, the MP loses his or her seat. Prime Minister Edward Natapei has been away on a Commonwealth summit and must therefore forfeit his seat. The remaining MPs will have to chose a new Prime Minister, while a by election will be held on the seat vacated by Mr Natapei. What a blunder! Was there not a single co-worker of the PM who could foresee this and make sure to avoid it? I just laugh at it.

If Mr Natapei has dogs at home, I guess they will be pleased to see him more often, as a prime minister usually work long hours. That would be an advantage of the blunder.

Disappointing Pizza

Can pizza ever be a disappointment? Yes, if you ask Daniel, it sure can. He bought some take away pizza for dinner tonight, but when he came home with them, he discovered that he had not got the pizza he had ordered. Instead of salami sausage, there was mushrooms all across the pizza, and Daniel dislikes mushrooms. I volunteered to have the pizza instead, but he did not think that was a good idea. However, they were nice at the pizza place, they asked for forgiveness and came by with a new pizza of the right kind with their delivery car. That is good service and Daniel thanked them for it.

Playing with Pups

Today, I got to get up close with April's two pups for the very first time. They are almost five weeks now, small and very cute. They play a lot with each other, and I played a little with them too. I guess we will get to know each other even better in the weeks to come.

Paula said anyone (by which she meant anyone who knows dogs, of course) could tell by my behaviour towards the pups, that I have had pups myself. I believe that is true. I did learn much about pups from having pups, and these skills came back automatically when I met April's pups. It was nice to say hi to April as well.

On the Origin of Species

On this day, 150 years ago, Charles Darwin's groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species was first published. It is often considered the first book where the theory of evolution of species was presented, and the main rule behind the evolution, which is the survival of the fittest. Thus, humans got to know the basic idea on how all living things has evolved from the most primitive life forms. Yet, controversy about the ideas went on for decades, and some humans still not believe in evolution. Many humans believed that all species had been created as they are, unchangeable, by God, by the dawn of time. The idea of evolution seemed, to them, as illogical.

I am a little puzzled to learn that humans actually thought that all species were created once and for all and could not change. Sure, changes takes generations, but humans had been around for generations to witness such changes. Indeed, humans had instigated such changes themselves in many species, when they had bred dogs, horses, and other animals as well as plants to their liking. Breeding as a form of shaping a species would not be possible, if the idea that all species were created unchangeable would be true. Yet, humans had been shaping different species by breeding for centuries before Darwin's book was published.

Well, there is reality, and there are the ideas that explain reality, and sometimes, you do not need the ideas explaining reality in order to use reality to your liking. I guess this is what the humans did who changed animals through breeding, while believing that species were unchangeable.

Monday Post

This is my Monday blog post. I am so annoyed that whenever there is a late night, and the clock strikes twelve, the post automatically receives the date of the next day. On evenings like this, it ruins my efforts to really have a daily blog. Everything was late, and I suddenly realized there was just a couple of minutes left on Monday. I asked to get the computer, but Paula had to have it to check homepages of other Shiba Inu breeders. While this is an important task, I cannot help but think that I should at least have had the opportunity to start my blog post on the early side of midnight. I do not judge Paula, she has worked until late and did not return home until close to eleven at night. She would certainly have given me the computer earlier, had she been her usual self and not as tired as today. Perhaps I should have written in my blog much earlier?

The Manipulative Minds of Cats

It is probably not a surprise to anybody that I believe dogs make the best human pets. After all, I am a dog myself. Still, there are numerous other reasons that this is true. Dogs are friendlier, more co-operative, comes in many more sizes and shapes, and are more useful to humans than other domestic animals. The dog is also the oldest human companion.

I have now found out another reason that dogs are better pets than cats. Cats are manipulative, and this is scientifically proved. Scientists at the University of Sussex have found that cats modulate their purrs to the same frequency as human baby screams. Humans are highly sensitive to sounds of human baby cries, which is only natural and good. Cats have found this out, however, and use it to manipulate and exploit humans when they purr to get food and the like.

Dogs are also able to find out things like this, but we do not manipulate our humans to get what we want, we love them, and we get our food in return for that. If you want a manipulative pet, get a cat, but if you want a loving pet, get a dog.

Birthday Celebration

Daniel's father Åke has turned 70. That equals 10 dog years. It is an honourable age, and while his real birthday was last Wednesday, today was when the whole family gathered in Stockholm to celebrate.

I found it interesting to take a walk around the block where Daniel's parents live. I have been to Stockholm before, but that has been for dog shows and dog shows are never so close to the centre of the city as Daniel's parents live. We saw the Historical Museum and the theatres Elverket and Maxim from the outside.

We came back home rather late, but it was a nice trip. Celebrations are always worth a journey.

A Hero

A jury has chosen this year's hero dog in Sweden. It is a newly founded prize for a dog who has done something exceptional, by an animal insurance company and an animal protection organization. The recipient is the Border Collie Jenna from the little village Orrbyn in the northern parts of Sweden. Jenna sounded the alarm that there was a fire in a barn, thus saving 160 animals. I believe it is a well deserved prize.

New EU Top Officials

The European Union has a new President and a new High Representative of Foreign Affairs. The posts has gone to Belgian Herman Van Rompuy and UK Baroness Ashton, respectively. It is a man from a small member state and a woman from a big member state, and consensus seems to be achieved. There are articles about them both in Swedish and international mass media, the Swedish one focusing on this agreement as an achievement of the Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt as the man behind the smooth process of reaching an agreement, whereas I have read more about the two persons in international mass media. However, I have yet to find out what dogs these humans have, if any. Can you truly trust a political leader who does not have a dog (or perhaps other pet)?

Lollipop

Paula had a lollipop this evening. There were talk about her not wanting all of it, so some of us dogs stayed really close to see if she would give it up and give it to anyone of us. I would have wanted that lollipop really bad. We do get enough food to eat, that goes without saying. However, anybody can feel the urge to get someting more once in a while. There is seldom candy like a lollipop for me (though Paula and Daniel say I get candy often), so any time there is a chance to get some, I try to show my keen interest. I finally got hold of this lollipop. This made for a sweet evening, in every sense of the word.

Culinary Capital of the World

The culinary capital of the world is not Paris any longer, but Tokyo, according to French culinary guide Guide Michelin. While Paris has ten three-star restaurants, Tokyo has eleven. This is a great homage to the Japanese food culture. With our Japanese heritage, it is a small wonder Shiba Inus are so interested in tasty food.

Traffic Jams

This afternoon, the public vaccination against the swine flu started in our home town Örebro. The authorities have rented the Örebro Fair for this purpose, since it is a large building with a lot of parking spaces. As late as yesterday, the Örebro County Kennel Club held an unofficial dog show there. The news media reported that there was a traffic jam around the Fair, with queues of cars stretching a long way. There was not enough vaccine for everybody who tried to get some.

I am not surprised about the queues today, but I believe many humans make wrong choices. In my humble opinion, a dog show is much more interesting than getting a flu shot, even an unofficial show. There would be many more humans going to the dog show yesterday than to the vaccination today, if they would make the same choices as I would. Nevertheless, there were no reports about long queues of cars to the dog show yesterday. I guess we just have to accept that many humans consider their protection against the posibility of a flu more important than the certain entertainment value of a dog show.

April's Pups

April's pups are now three and a half weeks old. Last week, they have started to discover the room outside of the box where they live. They have gained in speed and are now quite fast on their small legs. We can all hear them make noises once in a while, when they complain over facts of life that they have yet to learn to cope with, such as that you just cannot walk anywhere when there are obstacles in the way. They are cute, though not quite as cute as my little sister Suri or my pups Meja and Bagus were in the same age.

Water on the Moon

There is water on the Moon, much more than previously thought. NASA has made probes impact the Moon, and measurements show that the plume of material ejected from the surface contained significant amounts of water. This discovery is important for the future settlement of the Moon. Water is essential for life, thus, important for settlements. Water on the Moon makes settling it much easier and cheaper.

The impacts were made near the lunar south pole, in areas that have not seen sunlight in milliards of years. The Sun never rises high above the horizon that far south. Mountais then prevents the sun rays from getting to all areas of the surface. Think about it, in an area where you can say that there is a permanent lunar eclipse, water is found. In an odd way, just because my name is Lunar Eclips, this makes me proud.

Bad TV Reception

Paula has bought us a new TV connection, that is supposed to give us TV broadcasts via the Internet. Unfortunately, the connection does not work. She and Daniel even bought us a new, better TV set, but to no avail. We have to make do with the old antenna at least until Wednesday next week, when a cable guy would be able to come here and see if he could repair the Internet connection. This is bad. I do not watch much TV, but I like to watch shows with dogs sometimes, and I know that Paula and Daniel have some favourite TV shows that they like to watch. We just have to hope that everything will work out next Wednesday.

Great Meat

This evening, our ordinary dog food was spiced up with a fairly large quantity of moose meat. This is meat that costs many hundreds of Swedish crowns per kilogramme, but that we get for free from Paula's dear father Nils Olov. It really makes the meal worth waiting for.

Garbage

We have had a lot of useless stuff in our barn for a while. Since we moved in to this house, we have bought a new stove and a new washing machine. The old ones, along with other stuff, has been stored in the barn, for no other reason than that it takes some effort taking them away as garbage. Well, today, Daniel finally got rid of the stuff, with the help of Nils Olov. This is good, it makes more room in the barn for dog show equipment.

WARNING

We listened to the radio this afternoon, P4 Extra on Swedish Radio. One of the reports were about the Boxer Leon, who died from eating "BARF" (Bones And Raw Food) diet. There are pieces of animal bones in this food, and one piece punctured the colon of Leon. The poor dog must have been in pain, and then died. I must therefore warn all of my readers for "BARF". Do not use "BARF" for your dogs! Veterinarians recommend ordinary dog food.

Comments

Some of the comments to my blog are not nice. I decide not to publish them. Today, I had received a comment which was just a rather sexually offensive advertisement. I wonder why people make such comments. They are probably sent out in large numbers, but do they promote any sales? I do not want to think they do, but at the same time, if they would not, then the comments would stop coming. Well, they will never be published on my blog, anyway.

Father's Day

Today is father's day in Sweden. I have celebrated my Dad. I have also celebrated Calvin, the father of my pups, on their behalf. Daniel talked to his father in Stockholm over the telephone. A little later, he and Paula went over to her father, who lives much closer, just a few blocks away. Not everyone lives so close to their father as I or Paula do, who can easily celebrate them. This is too bad, because it is always fun to have reasons to celebrate.

I am blowing my coat, but Paula helped me brush all of it this evening. It feels good to get rid of all that excess hair and I look better.

A Nice World Record

A restaurant in Concord in New Hampshire, eastern USA, has set a new record in making the largest meatball in the world. This meatball is 101 kg! To make it a record, the meatball has to be edible and has to be made in a single day. The restaurant managed to do that. Then they donated the meatball to feed the hungry.

Some world records seem unnecessary, others are just silly. However, meatballs are one of the great inventions of the human culinary art. They are tasty, healthy, uses the parts of meat that would otherwise be scrapped, and can be seasoned to fit anybody's taste. Making the world's biggest meatball is really something to salute to. I just wish I would have been there and able to taste it.

No Japanese Team Left

Toyota announced the other day that they will withdraw from Formula 1, citing economic difficulties due to the hardships in the world economy. I am disappointed. Honda withdrew last year, and now Toyota, which means that there will be no Japanese team in Formula 1 next year. As a Shiba Inu, I have always hoped that these teams would do well, but they never did. Who is left to hope for now for us Shiba Inus?

Being Outdoors

I love being outdoors in our yard. We have a fenced in yard where Paula and Daniel often entrust us dogs to be by ourselves. The problem is, they want to decide when I will get indoors again. I want to decide that for myself.

Sometimes, I stay outdoors when they open up the door to let us in. Later, I sometimes have to bark numerous times for either of them to open the door to let me in. I realize that this makes them annoyed sometimes. They are mostly annoyed by my barks, but also by my decisions to stay outdoors sometimes, certainly because they know I will then bark when I do want to get indoors. Still, I must be allowed to decide upon these things myself.

Both Daniel and Paula often admit that one of the reasons that they like us Shiba Inus is our free spirit. We do have a strong will and a sense of pride. A Shiba Inu is nobody's serf. We do what we want to do, and when we want to, we do everything good. I just wish I could walk in and out without help, like I can on the warm summer days when Paula and Daniel keeps our front door open. It is not my intention, nor my wish, to make Paula and Daniel annoyed. Nevertheless, since it is impossible for me to walk in and out unaided during the cold months of the year, I guess I just have to annoy Paula and Daniel when barking to get indoors.

Repaired Computer

Our main computer has not been working well, so the other week, we left it in the shop for repairs. We have got it back now. It seems like it is working properly now. I am glad it is, because it is a good computer, as long as it is working. I hope we will have good and undisturbed use of the computer for a long time now.

Top Predators and Biodiversity

Wolves, the dog relative in wildlife, are top predators. New research shows that top predators like wolves play a much more important role for biodiversity than previously thought. Wolves kill large prey like moose, and the remains of the moose enrich the soil where it is left. The soil becomes more fertile, causing rapid growth of microbial and fungal life. This just adds to all the other evidence of the importance of our relatives, the wolves. Dogs are important in human civilisation, wolves outside of it. Are we not great?

I Am a Bitch

There has been a story in a Swedish news paper about a couple of humans in Sweden who have given their child a gender-neutral name and who refuse to tell people they meet or get to know whether this is a boy or a girl. According to the article, the child is three years old and knows for itself what sex it has got. However, the couple claim they want to raise their child without the preconceptions that the world gets if they would say whether it is a boy or a girl. This story is said to have been spread across the world, making some people rather upset. I guess this is because they are not used to the concept of not knowing whether a child is a boy or a girl.

Before I say anything about this story, I must say that I am not sure it is true. The names of the couple and the child are not stated in any article, and the couple are said to refuse to give any interviews. If they want to make a statement, I find this very odd. Nobody can collerate the truthfulness of the story, therefore, nobody can say for sure it is true or not. The concept of not telling what sex your child has is so odd, it might as well be made up. The only thing saying that the story is true, is that it is published in a reliable Swedish morning news paper, Svenska Dagbladet, but this is not quite enough for me.

Given that the story is true - for the sake of the argument - I think it is a silly thing, not telling the world whether you have a boy or a girl. I made no secret that I had a boy and a girl in my litter. Sooner or later, the sex will be known to the public anyway. What if it would hurt the child, when the sex, that it has kept secret, is revealed? I believe this is the wrong way to achieve gender equality, you have to accept two different but equal sexes, not deny the differences. Why not learn your children, or pups, to be proud of their sex, instead of hiding it? I am a bitch, and I am proud of it!

World's Oldest Dog?

The oldest dog in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is British Dachshund Terrier cross breed Otto Jones. He is twenty years and eight months old, and apart from a little arthritis and some grey hairs, there is nothing that shows he is very old.

I would like to be old myself, as long as I am as healthy as can be. Shiba Inus can get really old, though I have not heard of any who became twenty years old.

It should be noted that while this dog is a cross breed, there is nothing that says that other Dachshund Terrier cross breeds will be as long lived as he is. I do not even know what Terrier breeds are in him. He must have hit a jackpot in the genetic lottery.